


Wait, what was the plan again?

by tinybox



Series: Rewind (fast forward) [6]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 02:37:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17654441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinybox/pseuds/tinybox
Summary: Dark Leonard takes the hit for Cody. He collapses. The other dark turtles flee.None of them are quite sure what to do next.Or even if this is what they're supposed to be doing in the first place.





	1. Was this part of the plan?

They made it back to the base, albeit short one turtle. Darius is not there to greet them, but Dark Donatello knows that there are security cameras everywhere, no doubt recording their disgraceful return.

(He would hack them, but another one of the implants in his brain stops him from messing with any of the important equipment.)

Both of his brothers are unusually quiet. 

"Ummm....was this the plan?" Dark Mikey asks, voice dubious. "I wasn't listening too well."

Dark Raph thumps him across the head, hard. "Course it wasn't the plan, idiot! That moron," pointing his finger at Dark Don,"made a machine that didn't aim properly!"

"My machines work perfectly, and you know it!"

"Oh, yeah? How come it ended up hitting leader-boy? Besides, your stuff breaks down all the time! I still have the crack in my shell from your last 'experimental study'!"

"That was the expected result, you can't expect me to change the outcome! Besides, he jumped in front of the laser!"

"What do you mean?" the yellow turtle pipes up. In their disagreement, both Dark Don and Raph had forgotten that Dark Mike was even there, which is another sign that things are going terribly wrong.

"I mean, he jumped in front of the laser, moron! Do I have to draw you a diagram or something, or can you even read?"

"That's not what I meant, you...you..."

"SHUDDUP!" Dark Raph bellows. The other turtles fall silent.

"Now that our 'leader' is down for the count, we need someone else to take charge, someone tough just like me, which is why I'm in charge now." DarkRaph barely manages to avoid Dark Don's swinging tail, which ends up hitting Dark Mikey in the face instead.

"OW!"

"Shuddup you big baby. It didn't even break the skin."

Dark Donatello stops his attempts at attacking. "It just doesn't make any sense for it  _not_ to be a plan. It's probable that he wouldn't have told us ahead of time," Dark Donnie now in full lecture mode,"but did he mean to die? Why would anyone do that? Why didn't he try and take that boy down with him!"

"You really think that laser killed him?" Dark Raph asks, voice quieter than usual.

"Most likely. I made the machine to be 99.97% lethal, and even if he did survive, there's no way he would have lived very long without medical treatment. And before you go blaming me, it's not MY fault the Darius thought me learning any medical treatments was a waste of time!"

"...What's your problem?" Dark Mikey asks, surprise coloring his tone. 

"Hate to agree with the idiot, but you're rarely this wound up, boy-genius. What, you can't handle the thought that you might be just as broken as the rest of us?"

The room falls silent. 

"I'm out of here," Dark Mike muttered, voice subdued. "You old people can talk about whatever lame stuff you want, but I might as well go...watch some paint dry or something." Vaulting over some pipes, the clattering of his footsteps soon fade off into the distance. 


	2. Now what?

"Hey, um, Purple?" Dark Mikey asks. 

(When they're at Darius' lab, they don't really have names. They know who's who because of their colors, so that's what they call themselves.)

Dark Donatello looks up from his microscope. "What do you want, idiot?" 

Dark Mikey shuffles his feet.

Purple sounds really annoyed, and if Orange isn't careful, he might end up as one of Purple's test subjects. Nothing lethal, of course, but still painful.

"Do you think...um, Darrius is going to get another Blue?" 

"Is that what you wanted to know? Jeez, I didn't think you get get any stupider." Dark Don's now openly scowling, work forgotten.

"Of course we're going to get another Blue, Darrius likes to have a complete set. It might take a couple days, but Blue will be back." Dark Don turns away from Mikey and starts scribbling notes down on a piece of paper, which Darrius purposely left as low-tech as possible.

"So, Blue will be back and everything?" 

"Depends on what you mean by 'back'."

"What do you mean?"

"It'll be a new Blue. so it might take a while for the new Blue to catch up. That will most likely be an inconvenience for a while."

"But...where did Blue go?"

"He didn't go anywhere, stupid," Dark Don's voice has lost most of its anger, and he is now slumped forwards in his chair. Dark Mikey keeps a wary eye on him anyway, just in case.

"Darrius has a ton of genetic material, so when one of us gets worn down, we'll be replaced by another clone. Maybe he'll eventually find a way to transfer memories as well, so he doesn't keep having to train the same group over and over again. That's what I would do."

"That's not what I meant. I mean, where did  _our_ Blue go? I know you said he was dead-"

"Actually, I was incorrect. It was only the first generation that was killed."

"But what happens next for our Blue? Do you think...he's in a better place?"

"Where on earth did you get that idea?" 

"I saw it in one of the books Darrius gave me."

Dark Don sighs. "Those books are garbage, and so are the ideas in them. There is no better place, and even if there was, we're not sapient beings, so we wouldn't be able to get there anyway. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get back to my work."

 

Dark Mikey may have been an idiot cloned from a moronic turtle, but he knew that Dark Don wasn't in the mood to explain anything else, and he didn't want to stick around to become a test subject.

Dark Raph is waiting outside. "So, what'd he say? I bet he just said some mumbo-jumbo science stuff." Dark Raph crosses his arms, scowling.

"Ummm...I don't really know what he said. He said something about us getting a new Leo and how we're not sapient, but I dunno what that means. Do you?"

"See, what'd I tell you? Mumbo-gumbo science," he says in a mocking tone, hands on his hips. 

"But what about getting a new Blue? How Darrius make another one?"

"The same way, he made us,  _genius."_

 _"_ Um, was that sarcasm, cause it sounded weird when you said-"

"Darrius can do whatever the heck he wants. Point is, if he had another clone of Blue, there wouldn't be a difference between the two. Got that?"

"But, wouldn't they be...different? Cause, you can't make someone the same on the inside, right? There has to be something else that living beings have that make us, like, um...special and stuff."

"Sure, you're  _special,_ alright."

"I am? Thanks!"

"Yeah, I'm leaving this discussion."

Before Dark Mikey could say another word, Dark Raph had walks away.

(At least he hadn't been hit this time.)


	3. Who messed up? It wasn't me.

Finally, the idiot left his lab.

Now, Dark Donatello thought, he could work in peace. Just in case,though, he made sure to barricade the door to stop any unwelcome intruders. 

"Let's see...hmmm...what should I work on today?"

Well, for starters,his weapons could do with a bit of updating, and while he was doing that, he might as well update the others' weapons as well. Dunn would be pleased by his commitment, and would most likely see fit to reward him with food, or even better, more spare parts. 

He could continue his pet project, which he had been working on his entire life-a robotic turtle made up holographic nanobites that would allow him to fight from a distance. Of course, he had figured how to build such a thing ages ago, but Darius has always been stingy with the amount of tech that he allows Dark Don to use for 'frivolous endeavors.'   

He _had_ acquired a few nanobites to experiment on, but shortly hit a metaphorical brick wall when it came to duplicating them. The ones he has been given do not have replicating code inside them, and without that he has no way of making more.

 There were also a numerous amount of smaller projects that he had put on the back-burner, so this was a good opportunity to catch up on the work he had put off doing. Might as well do it now instead of later.

 

Somehow, though, he can't concentrate. When he glances up from his notes, hours have passed with him only reading a few sentences over and over again. 

_Is my brain degrading from overuse?_

 

 

As soon as he thinks that, he automatically looks left and right, checking to make sure no one was around who could see the idiotic expression he must have had on his face when he asked himself that moronic question.

Thankfully, the lab is still empty.

 

Now that he thinks about it, his new ship could do with some new repairs. Having to bear both Red and Orange's weight on the roof had certainly not helped what was already a delicate area to begin with. Plus, there was always a system reboot that needed to be done, as well as various upgrades to the laser guiding system...

_I really should have done this first._

_Why didn't I?_

Well, no time like the present. Grabbing a welding torch from the table, he stood up, and moved further into his lab where the ship was currently being kept for upgrading. 

_Now that I think about it, I could have put the ship a lot closer. This distance will make the trips back and forth all the more annoying._

_Why did I create more work for myself?_

His ship is truly a masterpiece of technology as well as design, certainly better than than anything that cretin, _Donatello_ , could ever even _dream_ of building. 

_He may be smarter than his brothers, but compared to myself he is nothing but a drooling idiot._

 

Looking over the hull, he sees that there is less damage that he had originally thought there was. Seeing as he could work on that later, he climbs inside to work on the various systems that he knows he needs updating. 

"My targeting system may be perfect...but perhaps I should have made it so it would be unable to hit us clones. Well, you live and learn."

Sitting in the pilot's seat, he examines the monitor. The screens look alright, although there seems to be some glitches popping up.

"Huh, that's weird."

The steering mechanic is broken almost in half.

Placing his hands approximately where they had been earlier, he saw the damage corresponded with where he had been clutching the wheel.

_When could this have occurred? I've only used this ship in combat once, and I've only fired the laser once._

It must have been directly after the laser had struck its target, he thinks, but that thought makes very little sense. Why would he react so violently? What had caused him to behave in such a manner?

_Think rationally. Cause, and then effect. Something happened. Something important. But nothing happened!_

Sure, they now needed a new Blue, but that couldn't be the reason for his violent assault on the steering wheel.

_Perhaps it was in annoyance?_

That idea does make sense. It would be annoying to have to wait while Darrius created a new Blue. Then again, it wasn't like Dark Don to actually care about not fighting the turtles.

There's a strange feeling in his throat. He must be getting ill.   
"I knew Darius should have let me study medicine. Then-

_I could have saved him_

I could just treat myself, no problem," he grouches to himself.

And if a part of his brain is remembering the feeling of protecting his brothers, of creating devices to keep them safe, he chalks it all up as leftover emotions that managed to bleed over from the transfer into his subconscious.


End file.
